In eukaryotic cells triacylglycerols are quantitatively the most important storage form of energy. Acyl CoA:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT, EC 2.3.1.20) uses fatty acyl CoA and diacylglycerol as substrates to catalyze the only committed step in triacylglycerol synthesis. DGAT plays a fundamental role in the metabolism of cellular glycerolipids. Because it is an integral membrane protein, DGAT has yet to be purified to homogeneity. A mouse cDNA encoding a protein with DGAT activity has been isolated by using a sequence tag clone sharing regions of similarity with an acyl Co A cholesterol acyltransferase. This mouse DGAT has been cloned, sequenced and expressed in insect cells and its activity characterized (Cases, S. et al. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:13018-13023).
DGAT is important for the generation of seed oils, thus overexpression of DGAT may be useful for increasing oil content of oilseeds and suppression of DGAT may result in the diversion of carbon into other metabolites.